Brazil Election Watch – heading to a second round

No candidate looks set to secure a majority in the first round of voting in Brazil’s presidential election this Sunday, meaning that the race is all but certain to extend to a second round run-off between the two leading candidates on 26^th October. The latest polls suggest that President Rousseff would now win in the second round, which has dented earlier optimism that the elections might deliver a change of government. However, the key point, as we’ve noted before, is that even if we do see a change in government, this would be unlikely to spur the reforms needed to kick-start Brazil’s economy.